France's upper house of parliament rejected a draft law Tuesday penalising clients of prostitution, as the country wrestles with how to legislate the world's oldest profession.
	In December 2013, the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, approved legislation making clients of prostitutes liable for a fine of 1,500 euros ($1,620) for a first offence and double that thereafter.
	But by a large majority, the opposition-dominated Senate reversed the National Assembly's proposal, scrapping the fines for prostitutes' clients and also dropping plans to repeal a law that made soliciting an offence in 2003.
	The legislation has already drawn fierce opposition from sex workers, who said it would drive prostitution further underground and make them vulnerable to abuse.
	Hundreds of prostitutes -- many South American and Chinese -- took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to protest against the proposed law.
	Health Minister Marisol Touraine hit out at the Senate's move, saying: "What 

French senate rejects law punishing prostitutes' clients

PTI Automatic

Troops from Niger and Chad killed 47 Boko Haram fighters when they repelled an attack by the Islamist insurgents in southeastern Niger, Chad's army said today.
	The fighting took place in Bosso, a Niger village near the border with Nigeria.
	The government forces did not suffer any fatalities, Chad's army said in a statement.
	Casualty figures are often hard to independently verify. However, a humanitarian source confirmed the losses saying 40 to 47 Boko Haram militants had been killed in Bosso and its surroundings.
	The rebels were pushed back to Nigeria, and at least four Boko Haram vehicles -- one of them armoured -- were also destroyed, a Chad military source said.
	A Niger member of parliament said they had fled to Malam Fatori, a Nigerian border town near Bosso that Chad and Niger say they want to take back from Boko Haram.
	The Nigerian army, however, says that Malam Fatori is under its control.
	The private radio station Anfani, based in the city of Diffa in southeastern Niger 

Troops repel Boko Haram raid on Niger: Chad military

Dozens of top Kenyan politicians and civil servants were named today in a damning graft probe by the national anti-corruption agency, which has already seen five cabinet ministers temporarily step down.
	A total of 175 people were named in the report submitted to parliament by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, including five cabinet ministers, 13 governors and a host of civil servants, MPs and members of the judiciary.
	President Uhuru Kenyatta has said those named in the report should step aside for 60 days to allow investigations to be completed.
	Five ministers have already done so, depriving the cabinet of more than a quarter of its members.
	The report, seen by AFP, is a damning indictment of the scale of corruption in the government.
	It describes the Ministry of Lands as "bedevilled with rampant corruption" and run by a "cartel" linked to minister Charity Ngilu. Her predecessor, James Orengo, is also under investigation for involvement in irregular land ...

Top Kenyan politicians named in graft report

Microsoft today unveiled a low-cost version of its Surface tablet computer, cutting the screen size of the device which starts at USD 499.
	The new Surface 3 will cost less than the USD 799 starting price for the Surface Pro 3 introduced last year, but will also have a less powerful processor and lack some other features.
	The new device comes with a screen of 10.8 inches, making it smaller than the earlier 12-inch screen versions of Surface, and gives Microsoft a new tablet that aims to compete with Apple's iPad Air.
	"Surface 3 brings what customers love about Surface Pro 3 to more people, delivering the premium design and productivity of Surface in a more affordable device," said Panos Panay, who heads the Surface division for Microsoft.
	The new Surface will have an optional feature not available on its predecessors -- the ability to connect to wireless carriers with a high-speed connection.
	Microsoft touts the Surface as a tablet that can replace a laptop.
	With sales topping ...

Microsoft unveils low-cost Surface 3 tablet

International donors pledged USD 3.8 billion today to help alleviate war-torn Syria's humanitarian crisis, which Kuwait's emir warned was the worst in "modern history".
	UN chief Ban Ki-moon told participants at the meeting in Kuwait that four out of five people in Syria were living in "poverty, misery and deprivation".
	"The Syrian people are victims of the worst humanitarian crisis of our time," he said.
	Addressing the closing session of the Third International Pledging Conference for Syria, Ban welcomed the promised funds as "very generous".
	The amount almost equals the combined total of USD 3.9 billion promised at the two previous conferences.
	The EU pledged nearly 1.1 billion euros (USD 1.2 billion), double the amount the bloc offered last year, while Kuwait opened the conference with a promise of USD 500 million.
	The United States pledged $507 million and non-governmental organisations committed more than USD 500 million.
	Other major contributions came from Britain with USD 

Syria aid pledges hit USD 3.8 billion

Iran will not be able to reap the benefits of any nuclear deal with world powers without the cooperation of its Gulf neighbours, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said today.
	Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments came on deadline day to reach a framework agreement aimed at stopping Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, in exchange for easing crippling sanctions.
	Iran insists its nuclear efforts are for purely peaceful purposes.
	"If the P5+1 wanted to give Iran a role in the region they should have first looked to favour an entente between Iran and the Arab states," Saud told the Shura Council, an appointed consultative body.
	He was referring to Britain, France, China, Russia, the United States and Germany, which face a 2200 GMT deadline in negotiations with Iran to end a 12-year dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.
	Saud asked the six major nations to not "short-circuit the interests of the states of the region by dangling before Iran benefits that it will not be able to reap ...

Iran nuclear deal would need Arab cooperation: Saudi

A key trial in Uganda of 13 men accused of taking part in Al-Shebab bombings that killed 76 people in 2010 was postponed today after the top prosecutor was shot dead.
	Police on Tuesday vowed to catch the killers of Joan Kagezi, acting assistant director of public prosecution, who was murdered by men on a motorbike as she drove home with three of her children on Monday evening.
	The identity of the gunmen and their motive remains unclear, police said.
	Minister of Information Jim Muhwezi said the "crime will not go unpunished", while police chief Kale Kayihura said "her death is a big loss to the country."
	She was shot twice, in the neck and in the shoulder, after stopping her car to buy fruit on the side of the road in a suburb of the capital Kampala. Her three children were unhurt.
	"The murder of Joan Kagezi should only serve to increase our resolve to hunt down and bring to justice all those elements bent on disturbing the security and development of our country," Kayihura ...

Uganda bombing trial stalls after top prosecutor assassinated

Spain's conservative government said today it would restore free health care for illegal immigrants, overturning a controversial decision taken three years ago.
	Under a reform that came into place in September 2012, foreigners without residency papers lost their national health cards which allowed them free treatment in local public health clinics.
	Illegal immigrants who are over 18 only get free treatment in case of an emergency, pregnancy or birth.
	"It is more sensible and reasonable that this care be given in health centres so emergency wards are not saturated," Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said as he announced that all undocumented immigrants would once again come within the fold of the public health system.
	Amnesty International and other right groups had fiercely criticised the government's decision to deny public health care to illegal immigrants, saying it breached international agreements.
	Health charity Doctors of the World ran a campaign called the "Right to treat", in 

Spain to restore free health care for illegal immigrants

Lufthansa said today it will cancel celebrations marking the German airline's 60th anniversary in the wake of last week's deadly crash of an Airbus jet from its low-cost subsidiary Germanwings.
	"Out of respect for the crash victims of flight 4U9525, Lufthansa is cancelling the festivities for the 60th anniversary of the company, which were planned for April 15," the airline said in a statement.
	A memorial service for the 150 people who died in last week's crash is being held in Cologne Cathedral on April 17.
	And "instead of the planned celebrations, Lufthansa will provide a live broadcast for its employees of the official state ceremony, where the bereaved families and friends will gather to remember the victims," the statement said.
	The Germanwings flight en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed on March 24.
	Investigators analysing voice recorder data say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz apparently locked his captain out of the cockpit and slammed the plane into a French ...

Lufthansa cancels 60th anniversary gala over Germanwings crash

Jewish teenager Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp at least a month earlier than her official date of death, a new study said today.
	"New research... Has shed fresh light on the last days of Anne Frank and her sister Margot," the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam said, until now her official death date.
	"Their deaths must have occurred in February 1945," the foundation said in a statement.
	The deaths of Anne Frank and her younger sister Margot in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany were noted as between 1-31 March by the Red Cross at the time.
	Dutch authorities later set the official date as March 31.
	Frank and her family went into hiding in 1942 from the Nazis in a secret annexe at the back of a building owned by her father Otto Frank's company in Amsterdam, two years after German troops occupied the Netherlands.
	There Anne penned her dairy -- which became world-famous after the war -- until the family was betrayed in 1944 and sent to Germany.
	The ...

Anne Frank died earlier than thought, new study says

Nigeria's main opposition today claimed victory in the country's tense general election as former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari pulled ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan in the vote count.
	If confirmed, it would be the first democratic change of power in the history of Africa's most populous country.
	With 32 out of 37 results in, Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) had won 19 states with Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on 12 plus the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
	Asked if the APC was claiming victory over the PDP, party spokesman Lai Mohammed told AFP: "Yes.
	"This is the first time the opposition has voted a government out of power in Nigeria's history," he added.
	Buhari, 72, stretched his lead to nearly 2.9 million votes over 57-year-old Jonathan, with most of the remaining states in the opposition candidate's northern heartland.
	They included the northeastern states hit hardest by the six-year Boko Haram insurgency.
	The former military ruler won the ..

Nigeria opposition claims victory in tense election

An armed leftist group took hostage today a Turkish prosecutor probing the politically sensitive death of an anti-government protester, threatening to kill him if their demands were not met.
	Gunfire was heard at the Istanbul courthouse where the prosecutor, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was working, the Dogan news agency reported said.
	Kiraz was investigating the killing of Berkin Elvan, who died in March last year after spending 269 days in a coma due to injuries inflicted by police in the mass protests of early summer 2013.
	In a statement published by Turkish media, the hostage-taking was claimed by the radical Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which has been behind a string of attacks over the last years.
	The group published pictures showing one of the militants -- his face concealed by a scarf with the group's red and yellow insignia -- holding a gun to Kiraz's head.
	They had also plastered their flags and posters on the walls of his office which is on the 

Armed leftists take Istanbul prosecutor hostage

Iran warned today that the Saudi "attack" on Yemen endangered the whole region, calling for an immediate halt to the military operation against Shiite rebels.
	"The fire of war in the region from any side... Will drag the whole region to play with fire. This is not in the interest of the nations in the region," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
	"We strongly object to the military solution in Yemen. We believe that the Saudi military attack against Yemen is a strategic mistake," Abdollahian told reporters on the sidelines of a Syria donors conference in Kuwait.
	"Military operations must stop immediately" to open the way to a "political solution," he said.
	A Saudi-led Arab coalition has been pounding rebel positions in Yemen since Thursday. Riyadh accuses Tehran of backing the Huthi Shiite rebels.
	Abdollahian said Iran sees the intervention in Yemen as "external aggression" that will foment extremism in the region.
	But Tehran and Riyadh are "capable of ...

Iran says Saudi 'attack' on Yemen endangers region

Nigeria's opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari today won the key prize of Lagos in the country's general election, but his overall lead was narrowed by landslide victories for President Goodluck Jonathan in the southern oil region.
	More than two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states have declared returns in the vote pitting Jonathan against former military ruler Buhari in the closest election ever in Africa's most populous country and biggest economy.
	Buhari held a lead of roughly 500,000 thousands votes but appeared to be in a strong position with a number of pro-opposition areas yet to report.
	Results are still pending from the northeast states hit hardest by Boko Haram -- Borno and Yobe -- which are expected to overwhelmingly back Buhari.
	The opposition leader, making his fourth run at the presidency, has been buoyed by frustration over endemic corruption, criticism over Jonathan's handling of the Boko Haram insurgency and a stronger opposition.
	The 72-year-old built an early lead in ...

Opposition holds lead but Nigeria president narrows gap

A massive power cut caused chaos today across Turkey, shutting down the metro networks in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, with the government saying an outside attack on the system was not ruled out.
	The power cut, the worst in one-and-a-half decades, began around 10:36 am (local time) in Istanbul, the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkey Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS) as saying.
	It also hit almost all the country's provinces from the Greek border to the southeast.
	"Every possibility including a terrorist attack is being investigated," in the outage affecting the country of some 76 million, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
	He added that a crisis desk was established at the energy ministry.
	Energy Minister Taner Yildiz also said the authorities were investigating whether the power outage was due to a technical failure or a "cyber-attack."
	"The most important thing for us is to bring the system back to life. This is not something we frequently ...

Turkey grinds to halt after massive power cut

Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State jihadist group, a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said today.
	The spokesman for the Badr militia said members of the Popular Mobilisation units -- pro-government paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias -- took part in the fighting, after some froze offensive operations last week in response to US-led air strikes.
	"Iraqi forces cleared the government complex in Tikrit," an army major general said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
	"The government buildings have been under our control since last night."
	It is the most significant advance in Tikrit since pro- government forces launched an operation to retake the city on March 2, their largest since IS led an offensive that overran much of the country's Sunni Arab heartland last June.
	Salaheddin Governor Raad al-Juburi confirmed that the government headquarters had been 

Iraq forces retake government HQ in Tikrit from IS

With a new road built to the crash site of the doomed Germanwings plane in the French Alps, investigators toay resumed their grim search through debris and body parts.
	Three trucks set off from the drop zone in Seynes-les-Alpes early in the morning after a hectic 48-hour road-building operation to ease access to the remote mountainside.
	"It means we can work faster, later and bring back more items," said one police officer.
	Trucks now take 45 minutes to reach the base of the rocky slope where debris remains spread across some two hectares (five acres), while two helicopters hover overhead to check for pieces that may have been flung further afield.
	Somewhere in there lies the second "black box" recorder, which gathered technical data on the flight, and has yet to be found.
	Search teams are having to dig into the loose earth on the assumption the black box has been buried, the policeman said.
	He added they have removed more than 4,000 pieces of plane and human remains.
	The ...

Search teams use new road to reach Germanwings crash site

Marathon talks aimed at stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons went into a final nail-biting day today, with Russia saying the chances were "high" of reaching a historic framework deal by midnight.
	Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was rushing back to the Swiss city of Lausanne to "take part in the final part of the ministerial meeting of the six powers."
	"Chances are high," Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow.
	"The prospects of this round of talks are not bad, even good I would say," he added.
	An army of technical and sanctions experts had worked into the early hours today, exchanging documents to form the basis of an accord.
	The two sides hope to seal a political framework aimed at ending a nuclear standoff that has been threatening to escalate dangerously for 12 years.
	They would have until June 30 to flesh it out with annexes.
	US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Lausanne since Wednesday in the latest in a series of meetings around the world with his Iranian 

'High chances' on deadline day for Iran nuclear talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today he was planning to take part in marathon talks aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear programme, saying chances of a deal were significant.
	"Indeed I am planning to return and take part in the final part of the ministerial meeting of the six powers," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
	Moscow had said earlier that Lavrov, who participated in the talks yesterday, would only return if there was a realistic chance of a deal.
	Today, Lavrov struck a sanguine note.
	"The prospects of this round of talks are not bad, even good I would say," said Lavrov, speaking alongside Vanuatu's foreign minister Sato Kilman.
	"Chances are high," he added.
	"They are probably not absolute and there is never absolute certainty in anything."
	"But these chances are quite realistic if none of the participants at the talks raise the stakes at the last moment in the hope of winning something extra at the end of the final act instead of seeking to maintain the ...

Russia's Lavrov to return to Iran talks

South Korea's top mobile messenger operator launched a new web-based cab-hailing service today to compete with California-based Uber, whose service has been subjected to crackdowns from state regulators.
	Daum Kakao, which claims some 50 million active monthly users, has taken various steps to avoid the pitfalls encountered by Uber, including using only registered taxi drivers for its service called KakaoTaxi.
	Today's lauch was for Android users, with an iOS version scheduled for release in April.
	Uber started its service in South Korea in 2013 but immediately ran into opposition, with taxi drivers protesting what they saw as a threat to their livelihoods.
	Its use of non-registered drivers triggered a series of lawsuits from municipal and state officials.
	Last December state prosecutors indicted Uber's American founder and CEO Travis Kalanick and his Korean partner for operating an illegal cab service.
	The municipal government in Seoul, meanwhile, offered a one million won (USD ..

New taxi app challenges Uber in S.Korea

Insurers are setting aside USD 300 million in provisions for the air crash in the French Alps that killed 150 people, German airline Lufthansa said on today.
	The sum includes financial compensation for the families of the people who died and the cost of the Airbus A320 jet itself, which belonged to the low-cost carrier Germanwings, a spokeswoman for parent company Lufthansa told AFP.
	She was confirming a corresponding report in the financial daily Handelsblatt.
	The current list price of an Airbus A320 jet is USD 93.9 million.
	According to Handelsblatt, the consortium of insurers is headed by German giant Allianz.
	When contacted by AFP, Allianz was not immediately prepared to comment.
	The Germanwings flight en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed a week ago.
	Investigators evaluating voice recorder data say co-pilot Andreas Lubitz apparently locked his captain out of the cockpit and slammed the plane into a French mountainside.
	The flight crashed at a speed of 700 ...

AFP

AFP

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